KUCHING – A team of students from Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus won the first runner-up spot at the Smart Uni IoT Hackathon National Edition 2022 on 3 September 2022 with their award-winning idea ‘Non-Zero: An IoT-based Personal Energy Harvesting Ecosystem’.
The Smart Uni IoT Hackathon National Edition 2022 was organised by Digital Internet Association Malaysia and supported by the Ministry of Education Malaysia, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia, National Science Week and CyberSecurity Malaysia to present and develop IoT solutions on the national stage. The themes spanned smart cities, agriculture and many more.
Countless teams across the nation participated in the competition, with only 25 making it through the first phase and only the top 10 being shortlisted as finalists.
The team from Swinburne Sarawak, Swinburne Research Interest Group (SRIG), comprised Paul Cornelius Bong, Eiton Ng Zie Teng and Jake Chieng Zen Yan under the supervision of Swinburne Sarawak’s Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science Lecturer Dr Mark Tee Kit Tsun and the School of Information and Communication Technologies.
The initial build of the team’s project saw its first steps on 25 July, where the idea had begun forming.
Hoping to contribute to the makings of the next generation of Extravehicular Mobility Units, the team proposed a system that would be able to harvest energy from everyday activities to prolong spacesuit operation time – from solar to motion.
The suit would be attached with solar cells along with a pair of small motor drivers on each limb. As a single renewable power source is only able to provide so much power to the suit, more sources can cumulatively provide a significantly greater amount of power.
With the integration of IoT, this allowed the team to remotely study the interaction of how multiple charging sources interact with one another when simultaneously charging a single battery. This study was critical for the realisation of this project as of now, multiple source charging will result in the destruction of some if not all power sources due to their inconsistent and fluctuating electricity supply.
In the near future, a simplified version of this very concept will see active people wearing a more modular and aesthetic system here on Earth. It is an excellent opportunity to generate a considerable amount of electricity with little to no impediment as people carry out their everyday activities. This will see the future of microgrids soar as the world seeks renewable and effective ways to replace fossil fuels.
“This was an amazing chance to develop and show our idea on the national stage. Winning the award means we’re definitely heading in the right direction,” said Paul.
Swinburne’s 2025 Vision is to bring people and technology together to build a better world, with people driven by a shared sense of purpose to create tomorrow’s technology and the human talent required for a digital, tech-rich future.
Understanding that being technologically savvy in today’s world is essential, Swinburne Sarawak offers Computing courses including the Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology and Bachelor of Computer Science with an IoT Major that comes hand-in-hand with Keysight Technologies for industrial relevance and internationally acclaimed professional certification. A Computing course could lead to a future of opportunities in cybersecurity, data science, artificial intelligence, software development and beyond.
Swinburne has also recently ranked among the top 126-150 universities in the world for Computer Science in the Times Higher Education subject rankings, moving up two brackets since last year.
Students can learn more about Swinburne Sarawak’s Computing courses by visiting the university’s website, calling +6082-415 353, chatting with a Swinburne Sarawak education counsellor via WhatsApp at +6019-819 6353 or sending an email to study@swinburne.edu.my. Students can also make an appointment for on-campus education counselling from Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm.